Monday, February 22, 2016

Debono’s research on lateral thinking found that in
hotel fires, more people were killed as a result of panic reactions than by the
fire itself.

It’s a frightening picture. But it’s also a reminder that we our
own biggest threat. That in the midst of a crisis, when the world is burning
around us, the thing that is most likely to destroy us is our own inability to
react intelligently.

Thankfully, few of us ever find ourselves in the middle of
a hotel fire. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to improve our response
flexibility, meaning, the ability to pause before we act.

My yoga instructor
constantly reminds the students to do this when the room gets especially hot.
Before you reach for water, before you flop down on your mat, before you walk
out of the room, try breathing through it. Don’t buy the story the mind is
selling. Just breathe.

Dum spero speri. Where there’s breath, there’s hope.

Nine times out of ten, it works. Despite
room temperature or muscle soreness or physical exhaustion, a calm, ten second
breath is surprisingly effective.

And so, if it’s true that the mind is merely
the reaction style of an organism to its environment, find your own version of
breathing through it. Learn to resist a panic reaction to the surrounding fire.

Because in between stimulus and response, there is a space for an intelligent
choice.

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What’s your healthiest response to crisis?

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